John Lewis

Until recently, Warren Justice was best known to his grandchildren as a "pretty neat" doll's-house builder.

While many secondary schools continue to applaud the University of Otago for raising the entry level for its programmes, one educator has criticised the timing of the new criteria's introduction.

Bayfield High School has signed a partnership agreement with Hengshui High School in China which could see up to 100 senior Chinese pupils studying in Dunedin each year.

Otago secondary schools are advising pupils to improve their NCEA grades if they want guaranteed entry to university courses next year.

While public-private partnerships (PPP) for building and maintaining new school property in New Zealand sound "seductive" to Otago school principals, they are sceptical and say they will keep a close eye on the Government initiative.

"At the moment, I'm experiencing equal amounts of terror and excitement," Waitati School's new principal, Heidi Hayward, says.

No money? No worries. It seems there is such a thing as a "free lunch" in Dunedin after all.

Any event in which gun-toting cowboys fill children "full of chocolate" has got to be a winner.

The rolls of nearly half of Dunedin's schools have slipped to their lowest or second lowest level in a decade, despite rolls across the region marginally increasing.

It is a simple product that is really going places, particularly into growing spaces.

Dunedin school and two Invercargill schools are believed to have refused to implement the Ministry of Education's National Standards, and the New Zealand School Trustees Association has warned the schools' boards of trustees could be sacked unless they comply.

A group of Government, Dunedin City Council and Dunedin business representatives, established to win some of the construction work on the $500 million tender for Auckland's trains, has widened its scope to encompass all of Dunedin's engineering firms.

They ran in at speed, they let out high-pitched squeals - a few hardy blokes included - then they turned around and ran out again.

"She was something quite different - she was special."

For Finn Butler, musical inspiration can be stirred, or even shaken, from almost anywhere.